Key Hillary supporter's offshore dealings surface in Panama Papers

One of Hillary Clinton’s key supporters – an Israeli billionaire who has donated more than $15 million to her presidential campaign and troubled family foundation – used a controversial Panamanian law firm to set up offshore companies and once admitted to a Senate panel that he used phony investment losses to dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

Television and entertainment magnate Haim Saban, an Egyptian-born Israeli who made a fortune off of the “Power Rangers" children’s TV franchise and holds a lucrative stake in Univision, is among thousands of international movers and shakers whose names have surfaced in the Panama Papers.

The vast trove of documents, leaked to a journalism consortium, show how celebrities, politicians and the rich use offshore companies to avoid taxes.

Saban and his American-born wife, Cheryl, are well-entrenched in the Clintons’ inner circle. They have donated $3.5 million to Hillary Clinton’s current campaign for president and more than $12 million to the Clinton Foundation, on which Cheryl Saban serves as a board member.

“For nearly two decades, Haim Saban has been a good friend, a loyal supporter, and trusted advisor to Hillary and me,” Bill Clinton told The New Yorker in 2010.

It is an odd relationship.

Hillary Clinton is promising voters that she will “close corporate tax loopholes and make the most fortunate pay their fair share.” Those pledges fly in the face of Saban’s tax avoidance practices.

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